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Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu is not wanting for work these days. The morning after a triumphant finish at the Metropolitan Opera (he sang Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata), he boarded a plane to Chicago. As it turns out, getting from New York to Chicago is a lot easier than getting from Verdi to Bach – but that’s all in a day’s work.

“After Verdi…I say, ‘Maestro, I cannot sing, because it’s completely different. I need two-three days to warm up a different technique.'”

Saimir Pirgu sings J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through Tuesday.